


evergreen

by Val_Creative



Series: IT Movies Fic-Palooza 2019 [38]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Adult Losers Club (IT), Bill Denbrough Loves Mike Hanlon, Childhood Friends, Derry (Stephen King), Falling In Love, Flashbacks, Gay Bill Denbrough, Gay Mike Hanlon, M/M, Mike Hanlon Loves Bill Denbrough, Movie: IT Chapter Two (2019), Mutual Pining, Romantic Friendship, Teenage Losers Club (IT), Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 19:44:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21021251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/pseuds/Val_Creative
Summary: They’ll always have their childhood. Mike remembers it all, without faltering, like submerging into deep, cool water.





	evergreen

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by rayskaskriivaa (AO3): "something cute and fluffy about their childhood, innocent little kisses and stuff, discovering and experimenting, sfw stuff. Hanbrough." I know you tacked on NSFW too but a lot was focused on them as kids so it didn't feel quite right. I really love what happened with this and aaaahhhhhh well will find out if everyone else likes it too! Any comments/thoughts are always welcomed!

*

They'll always have their childhood. Little, glowing fragments.

Mike remembers it all, without falter, like submerging into deep, cool water. The following day, after getting saved by Beverly's rock—as well as the others from the Losers Club—Mike was invited out to the quarry. It had been a lazy, sunny morning. They all flung themselves into the waters, gasping for air and diving under and kicking pebbles, stripped down to their underclothes.

He remembers staring at Bill from a distance. His cropped, red-auburn hair glistening in moisture. Blue eyes like when the heavens above cloudless and warm, like when Mike laid out on his uncle's tractor, wistfully daydreaming about leaving this hellhole.

Bill would eventually stare back, pulling his gaze from Beverly wrestling against Richie snorting laughter. The corners of Bill's mouth lifted up.

Mike's heart thudded so intensely, dizzying him.

He liked his friends. All of them.

Ben and Mike and Eddie would talk about their fathers, walking down past the railroad tracks, side-by-side. What they did for a living before suddenly dying. How much Ben and Mike and Eddie missed them _every_ year. However, something about Bill felt magnetic when they were young.

He was the leader—not by choice, but because Bill displayed his passion and strength _worthy_ of a leader. Everyone knew that.

Mike knew then. He didn't know what exactly the feeling was, too complex for his age.

_New. _

_Terrifyingly real._

Bill smiled wider at Mike, holding his next breath and ducking himself beneath the pale green quarry, swimming towards him. He emerged, spitting a thin stream of water in Mike's direction. Mike went flabbergasted. He then laughed with Bill, getting a mouthful and spitting back.

They laid out on the sun-heated rocks, arm-to-arm, listening to Eddie bicker quietly with Stanley. Mike's hand drifts in the air against Bill's, lightly touching the back of their hands and fingers. Bill's middle hooked gently against Mike's forefinger.

*

While buttoning up his jean-shorts, Bill asked if Mike wanted to ride with him on Route 2. If Mike was heading back to the farmland.

Mike wondered why Bill didn't ask _Beverly_ to give her a ride home.

She said nothing, glancing between them in amusement.

But he didn't ask her. Mike climbed on, his dirty white henley all smudged, wrapping his arms around Bill's waist. Bill squeezed over Mike's wrist encouragingly, once or twice, on their way. Each time, Mike pressed in closer, smiling bigger.

He introduced Bill to the herd of free-roaming cows on the property, giving them names like Susannah and Jake and Roland. Bill hauls himself up with Mike on a rounded hay bale, pretending to crow, flapping his arms awkwardly. They chased each other breathlessly into a outshed empty of livestock, the wooden rafters painted in gleaming, burnished sunlight. Mike caught him by the hands, gasping and sweating heavily, feeling Bill throw himself forward, hugging him tightly.

He never felt more at _home_ than in Bill's arms.

It was three or four miles between the Hanlon farms and Bill's house. Bill told him solemnly he needed to leave before it got too dark out. Mike nodded, understanding why, but his gut clenched. And, out of nowhere, Bill's lips smacked wetly to Mike's cheek.

Bill only grinned, running off, flustered enough to stutter out a goodbye.

*

The Losers Club would have many more memories.

One of Mike's favorites being when they danced in the Clubhouse to the radio on Richie's boombox. He could still hear _We're Not Gonna Take It_ through the static. Stanley and Beverly spinning on their own, whipping their arms up and down and out. Ben and Richie tossing their heads to the music, imagining playing guitars. Eddie whistling through his fingers, jumping down from a crate. Bill swayed his head back and forth, clumsily knocking into Ben.

Mike doesn't remember what he did, but he knows this song ringing through King's Diner.

Richie motions wildly from the jukebox, grabbing onto Eddie's jacket and pulling him. They scream-sing along, including Mike, dancing in a circle like a bunch of fools and pointing to each other, laughing uproariously. Whether it's the town's curse or not, the diner's occupants ignore them.

And heavens above, Bill stares at him longingly from a distance.

Mike's lips twitch into a soft, knowing smile.

*


End file.
